A senior source at the company tells us the changes are the result of Google's "secret weapon," new CFO Patrick Pichette.

Since joining, our source says, Patrick has been "taking on a lot of the low-hanging fruit." And that "it's going to make a difference in revenues over the next year."

Patrick is possessed of standard good business sense: After his hire said he intended to "feed the winners," and "starve the losers" at Google. His trick to succeeding at Google, however, is that he doesn't make the mistake of being "aggressive or overbearing" about it.

[Patrick] thinks like a normal business person but he has the academic credibility to be taken seriously here. Not aggressive or overbearing, but introducing the kind of discipline good companies all have. He has a slightly academic air and that really plays here. Without him, none of this would happen. Or if it did, it would happen in a really Google-y way.